Author: maggie

For some reason this post didn’t get published . . .
I guess the biggest news around here is “Jeep, boken” & “Sally, gone, gone”. Yes, sadly the Jeep that Wilson got from the dentist has one wheel that was badly mauled by Tate and we have not seen Sally (the little blue Porshe from Cars) in days- let us know if you have any leads. Also, Wilson’s great-grandmother’s sitter has, again, gone well above and beyond the call of duty and collected all the Hummer McDonald’s Happy Meal Toys. We went to visit her last night before our swimming lesson and Marilyn took him back to Nan’s room and opened a dresser drawer to reveal about seven new trucks- one even lights up when you roll it! No ninety year old grandmother has ever been cooler!! I had to drag Wilson out of the retirement home to go swimming (mind you he was carrying all the trucks with him). I guess he was scared to leave the source.

The post below is a video that I tried to send several of you last week. It is of Wilson and his daddy feeding the ducks at the park across the street from MRA before the football game. Wilson was having such a great time it was very hard for him to leave to go see uncle John play.

you missed his obituary, Wilson “died and went to Heaven” this morning. At about 9:00 am we heard all sorts of celestial noises as his chairiots came to retrieve him. They are pictured below.

Actually, for some reason, unknow to me, the city decided to repair the sidewalk that is falling apart in front of our house. These guys showed up this morning, and luckily, for their sake, Wilson was home to supervise their work. I’m sure they were thrilled with our not- so- stand-offish observing and the many photo ops. They were probably thinking, “Well if I’d know I’s gone get my picture taken- I’da worn the good coveralls. Sheesh!”

One day last week Wilson wanted to swim after supper. I realize this is entirely too late to be putting a 22 month old in the pool but he caught me at the entirely perfect moment- too tired to argue and just delirious enough to think it could be a good idea. So, he swam, without a stitch of clothing, while I shampood him off. As I was dumping out the pool I noticed the naked little jay bird had dissapeared. Here’s where I found him . . .

What goes up, must come down . . .

Does anyone remember the “Coefficient of Friction” from physical science in jr. high? I think baby blubber against plastic slide must top the scale- poor Wilson learned this the hard way!

“Dad, go get the baby oil and let’s try that again!”

And here are two of my favorite boys fighting over who will sit on top of me. Those of you who know our dogs well know if you sit or lay on the floor you are a fair game as a resting spot for Tate’s bum and that we blame Tate’s bad manners on the fact that he was raised by Jack. I guess we’ll have to blame Wilson’s habit of sitting on people on the fact that he’s being raised by Tate. “Exhibit A”:

for the dog to get a haircut when you reach down to pet them only to realize that his fur is concealing left over macaroni cheese from your toddlers dinner! Above is one of the many pieces I discovered below a few layers of hair.

Wilson really may be a genius. He is in the den watching TV with Daddy while I’m getting some work done. He’s snacking on some “Cars” cookies. He just picked out the only ” ‘Mater” cookies from the four cookies he had, held them up and said “Mater, one, two, TWO ‘MATERS!”! I’m not making this up- the child just completed his first word problem. I think it’s time for me to be worried- I’ll soon be outsmarted (if I haven’t been already). I’ll post more later, I’ve got to get back to work for now.

I know, I know, I know. I haven’t posted in a few days. Okay a few weeks. Alright, FIND, it’s been a month. For those of you who are surprised by this let me let you in on a little secret. I’m really terrible at the whole keeping a journal thing. I’m good for a little while and then the new wears off and it becomes a chore- this blog being Exhibit A. In fact I’m sure when my last roommate found out that I had started one, she probably laughed herself silly wondering how long it would last. She lived with me in Rome during college. In case you’ve never been a student in Europe, you’re not even supposed to get off the plane unless you plan to log your entire stay there in a journal. Preferably leather bound and full of all the self discovery you’ve done while trodding around on dirt streets in your Burks. I didn’t get passed writing down address from home to send postcards back to. I think I may have kept a list of what was on each role of film I took for my photography class, but that was sort of necessary. This same roommate was with me in Atlanta while we did our internships. We were supposed to keep a journal of our daily tasks to turn in so that future generations of Interior Design grads could get an idea of what you do in the real world. We quickly decided that wouldn’t be a daily task- we’d just print out our time sheets at the end of the week and do a weeks worth over the weekend. Well doing daily timesheet even proved to be too routine for me- our poor bookkeeper- so I sat up half the night before I returned to Starkville for my presentation trying to recreate an entire summer’s worth of work on paper. Sheesh!! So, that in a rather large nutshell, my friends is why you should probably lower your expectations for the regularity of the blog henceforth!

However, I will catch you up on what’s been going on around here. Last week was VBS and, as usual, I was on the crafts team. It was absolutely insane, but looking back, lots of fun too. I have cut all my fingernails off to remove the paint and luckily had already cut all my hair off, so there wasn’t much there to damage. I’ve had a baby shower for my good friend Ashley who since has given birth to healthy baby boy twins! A big GOOD LUCK to her with that. They should all be home soon. I was in the wedding of a high school friend a few weeks ago. That was tons of fun- it’s always great to catch up with old friends and hear about what all is new with them. My cousin is getting married two weeks from yesterday, so that is the next big event. This week will be spent preparing things for that and also doing some “real work”. My one job a year has been on hold due to the architect, and now all of a sudden they’ve started construction, the building will be done in a couple of months, and I haven’t even seen a set of final plans. I did the entire space plan, sent it to the architect, he left for Italy and conveniently forgot to tell me he was done with the rest!! Gotta love it.

On the Wilson front, our latest achievements are colors, numbers, and shapes. He has quickly picked up on shapes and is getting more and more accurate every day with his colors. He can also count to ten when he really tries. We’re looking for a letter from Harvard announcing his full ride any day now. He is still obsessed with cars but does take a 30 minute break every Wednesday for swimming lessons. He is staying under the water longer and is starting to kick and paddle a little. But back to cars (he wouldn’t won’t me to spend much time on any other topic). His great grandmother (Nan) has a sitter with a McDonald’s connection. She has gotten us the complete hookup with the happy meal Cars toys. (as a side note, if you haven’t gotten a Happy Meal lately, the toys are much cooler than when we were little. remember the little plastic grid that you had to twist all the pieces off of and stick them all together to make some non-brand-named piece of crap? these cars roll on their own, one turns around at the edge of table so it doesn’t fall off, another is able to bounce like it has hydraulic lifts- how cool) He knows all their names and all the tricks they can do. One morning this week I had to wake him up to go to VBS. I went in and was squeezing his hands and feet. He finally opened his eyes, smiled at me, and said, “trucks” in a very dreamy voice. Apparently he’s incapable of thinking of much else!!

Well- here are some pictures of the latest additions around the Ethridge house. Hope everyone is well.

This is Phil’s granddad’s 1973 Super Beetle. Wilson is in love. He calls it Big Car. Our only guess is that since it is so small, he thinks it’s a toy and, therefore, the biggest toy car he’s ever seen.

A few pics of our new swingset. All our boys are enjoying this. Wilson has mastered the rock wall and before you know it is in the fort. Jack and Tate have also learned how to climb up and slide down- What fun!!

Our very own Miriam Ethridge original!! I’m so proud of our new painting by Phil’s grandmother, I’m going to have to redecorate my dining room to live up to it!!

If you haven’t tried the tickle test link to the left- you really should, it’s a great way to waste time, I mean delve deeply into who you are as you take test after test to discover what really makes you tick. Today one of the feature tests is what would your soap opera scenario be. They’re usually pretty on target- I can’t fault someone who has recently concluded that I should be living in Savannah, GA with Owen Wilson!

Maggie, in your soap opera scenario, you’re The New Girl in Town

While the rest of the town is swapping lovers, backstabbing friends, and selling family out, The New Girl in Town is one of the few characters with any real heart or integrity. Somehow The New Girl makes it through all the episodes untarnished, with her sterling reputation and optimism intact. While you may not have just fallen off the turnip truck like The New Girl in Town, you probably share a certain sunny disposition with her, looking on the bright side of things, and giving people the benefit of the doubt. And because of your outlook, people are probably irresistibly attracted to you. If your half-stepbrother were accused of stealing a secret formula, you’d probably be first to run to his defense, trying to uncover clues that point to the true culprit. When they free him on all charges and arrest the right man, people probably won’t even start nasty rumors about the coincidence that you started dating the Chief of Police around the same time that your bro was first arrested. So enjoy your popularity as The New Girl in Town. Just watch your back for those folks who don’t have such kind intentions or you might find yourself careening off a cliff or getting framed for someone else’s transgressions. That’s the only way anyone could get a New Girl in Town like you down.

I duely apologize for the long over due update, rest assured I have been chastised by many of my regular readers and I’ll try my best to keep up from now own. As far as this post goes- I just need to do something to get back into the swing of it. So much time has gone by that I just don’t know where to start, so I haven’t. Birthdays, anniversaries, parties, vacations, illness, etc… I will say that Wilson is better (since that’s the last news I left you with)- the first evidence of his miraculous recovery was when I walked into my bathroom to find all of my “how to raise a toddler” books floating in the bathtub!! I’ll let a few pictures and captions fill in the gaps from there.